What is needed to combat the overwhelming level of belief in God?

[athrock]

I have a question.

As many of you admit, the philosophical arguments for the existence of God works best for those that already have a propensity to believe in God (raised that way, exposed through family or friends, or an evangelist ministry of some kind that resonated with them or met their needs in other ways). In that way, the arguments provide affirmation of what they believe to be true from other sources.

I have seen first hand, that apologetics in the last 10 years is on a HUGE upswing in churches. Almost every church has a periodic class or a study looking through the philosophical arguments, reviewing those things that science can't explain, picking apart scientism and pointing out the logical implications of such a belief system. It is great sport to pick apart Dawkins and other spokesmen of the "New Atheist" movement. I wonder if Dawkins et al efforts have not actually been counter-productive and instead galvanized the church into much needed education. 

If 90% of the world believes in God and 31% (and growing) are Christians, it seems that your "there is no evidence for God" theme is not getting out. Include the above observation that the philosophical arguments will be more effective in this group anyway, and it seems unlikely to change. I am not mocking you, I simply want to know what you think will happen in the future. Do you think science will provide some sort of answer(s) to combat the huge imbalance (it sure doesn't look like it is going to be philosophy)? If science, what things in particular might make a difference?

In the past, Atheists were content to live and let live, and they did not go out of their way to evangelize folks to their way of thinking.

This all changed after September 11, and was spearheaded by the "four horsemen" - Dennett, Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens. Add in the popularity of books by people like Bart Ehrman and Richard Carrier, and you have the makings of a groundswell.

I can only comment on what I've observed in the US, but my take is that the churches in America were unprepared for this sudden assault on the nation's core religious values. But that is changing rapidly, and the interest you're seeing in apologetics does not bode well for the skeptics. 

They landed a few good sucker punches, but the result may only be that a sleeping giant has been awakened. It will be interesting to see how the skeptics react as more and more believers begin to shift resources from a focus on generalized "evangelism" to the more specific arguments of atheism more directly.